Gwar, The Casualties, Infernaeon, Mobile Death Camp Live Show Review

October 23rd, 2010 Toronto,ON - The Opera House

Once in a while something creepy will hit Toronto by storm and draw tons of people out from their daily routines. On October 23rd not only did Toronto host its 8th Annual Zombie Walk, it also played host to the one and only thrash metal band Gwar. The festivities commenced in the afternoon as Canadian born “Oderus Urungus” was granted the title of Honorary Grand Marshal and lead a pack of zombies through the city streets. The night was filled with music and a graphic stage performance to a sold out crowd.

MOBILE DEATH CAMP -
The first band to take the stage was Mobile Death Camp a three piece punk/thrash metal band. The trio consists of Todd Evans (formerly of Gwar as ‘Beefcake the Mighty’), Boe Skadeland and Scott “Cracker” MacEachern. The band started the night with intense music and a performance that got the crowd pumping. I had never seen or heard too too much about the band and was easily satisfied by what they had to offer. By the end of the night I was thinking that they should have been the second band to play and be followed by The Casualties.

INFERNAEON -
At 8:35 Infernaeon took the stage commencing with a long scream. At this point the Opera House was starting to get a little more packed. They played a cover of the song “Creeping Death” from Metallica’s Ride the Lightning (which you can find on their album “Genesis to Nemesis”). During their performance the singer Brian Werner held up a goat head that they were selling for 300 bucks. They were a fun band to watch however I think that they should have opened the night only because they were death metal and the others were more thrashy and punk.

THE CASUALTIES -
The Casualties was the next band to take the stage at around 9:20 and immediately owned the crowd with their energetic presence. After their rendition of The Ramones song “Blitzkrieg Bop” they invited the crowd to a wall of death. Oddly enough I had never heard of the band before and while talking with a couple of friends at the show I came to find that they had been around for many years. I really enjoyed their music and was impressed by the amount of merchandise they had available for their fans. I would definitely go out and see them again.

GWAR -
While waiting for the headliner the house played some tunes and the crowd lent their vocals to Black Sabbath’s War Pigs. Michael Jackson’s Thriller song came on and GWAR took the stage. They started at 10:45 and immediately cut off a head and slit the throat of two of their slaves. It was just to give the crowd a taste of the blood and gew that was about to come during the period of their performance. They introduced us to a dog named Pookie and asked why we thought he wasn’t barking and came out with “Because he’s dead”. The audience was then greeted with another dose of Gwar blood while they sang the tune Genocide. It was a little further into the show that Oderus Urungus made a comment about their Canadian Fan Club President that was recently arrested then came out and said it was Russell Williams. Around a half hour into their set they brought Bone Snapper back out hoping that this time he was dead and tore out all his intestines. At one point during the night the bass in the house was insane and the song that was responsible for this was Bring Back the Bomb. Their pop icon up for desecration of the night was none other than Lady Gaga. She came out wearing a dirty toilet around her stomach and then the band spit blood from her boobs. They hilariously ended her set by beating her over the head with an enormous plunger. An hour into their set they said goodnight to the crowd and off to the side you could see one of the members having a cigarette. The crowd was not ready to call it a night and the band came back out and performed a new track of their upcoming release “Bloody Pit of Horror”.

Overall I had an awesome night; all the bands were great and had the crowd’s attention from beginning to end. If I had to rate the night I would give it a 10! Xplosivemetal.com would like to thank all the bands, all those involved in making this a great night and to our friend Jon Freeman for allowing us the opportunity to go to the show.